10 Awesome Things We Learned From Comic Con 2013

Another year and another San Diego Comic Con has come and gone, one which will remain lodged in comic book fans’ minds for the foreseeable future, given how many thrilling – and in one case, shocking – announcements were made.

The event, which has transformed in recent years from a relatively niche geek fest to a 130,000-person strong multimedia event is the annual crunch time for movies, video games, TV and comics to announce their newest projects, and unveil those that we have been salivating to see.

This year certainly didn’t disappoint, festooning the attendees with footage hot off of the sets of several Marvel Cinematic Universe projects, while some chose to make announcements that none of us could ever have seen coming. Here are 10 awesome things we learned from this year’s SDCC…

10. Robocop Doesn’t Look Awful

The Internet reception to the idea of a Robocop remake has so far been, to be kind, negative. Those leaked set pictures of Joel Kinnaman walking around in the “new” Robocop suit were universally decried, though it has emerged that this is merely one prototype suit used early in the movie, and later on we will see a suit more closely resembling the classic one from the original trilogy of movies.

The clips that played at the Con make it clear that this take aims to be no less satirical, though its bent is slightly different; a TV report of OmniCorp’s drones and ED-209’s being used in the War on Terror make it clear that the film wants to examine contemporary concerns, namely the use of machines to fight wars and the potential lack of accountability that this invites.

The main difference seen in the footage is that Alex Murphy is not dead this time; he is instead severely burned, and as such he still has his wife. Also, attendees noted that the new Robocop suit looks far better in motion, and that the set pictures do not do it justice.

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.

I’m sorry, but calling Batman/Superman predictable while not saying the same thing about virtually any comic book movie is kind of an insult. Avengers: Age of Ultron will either be a serious film, or will do like the first Avengers where we expect a big fight between the main villain and the team. But instead will see the team fight grunts while Hulk easily defeats the main villain in a painful attempt at comedy relief.

I agree with Gary. I realize I am in the minority of people who were not crazy about the Avengers. A billion dollars plus can’t be wrong, right? But the movie had zero stakes and as much of a fan favorite as Loki is he was not a threatening villain in the least in that film and I thought it really hurt the movie. Not since Mr. Freeze has a villain posed less of a threat to the main heroes.

I’m in half agreement – I loved the movie and thought it was great, fast-paced fun. Whedon made a studio film (he’s an absolute talent and a genius but he’s not proven at this level) and it did very well.

That being said, I love Tom Hiddleston but he is not a villain. Loki was never particularly scary and the aliens at the end just served for cinematic/visual fodder. Hopefully they’ll give Whedon a bit more freedom to do something different, something darker. Serenity was incredible dark but always kept that Whedon charm/humour.